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A Geodemographic View of the Accessibility of Selected Outpatient Services in Czechia

Objectives: Although people use health services throughout their lives, there are important differences in timing, location, and frequency of utilization. The aim of this article is to identify and explain these differences in terms of healthcare accessibility. Methods: Outpatient health services—di...

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Autor principal: Maláková, Kateřina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8895322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35250428
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604067
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author Maláková, Kateřina
author_facet Maláková, Kateřina
author_sort Maláková, Kateřina
collection PubMed
description Objectives: Although people use health services throughout their lives, there are important differences in timing, location, and frequency of utilization. The aim of this article is to identify and explain these differences in terms of healthcare accessibility. Methods: Outpatient health services—diabetology, cardiology, and psychiatry—are analysed using anonymized data from the General Health Insurance Company (GHIC) in Czechia for 2019. Healthcare utilization is studied in relation to selected geodemographic characteristics—patient’s age, sex, place of permanent residence, and location of healthcare provision. Results: The analysis found significant differences in the utilization of the selected health services in terms of age, sex, and size of the patient’s municipality of residence. Generally, men tended to travel outside their municipality for healthcare more than women. Young patients were more likely (and also further) to travel outside their municipality for healthcare than older patients. Conclusion: The reasons for this were the location of the health service provider (mostly concentrated in local/regional centres), the patient’s ability and willingness to travel for healthcare, and differences in the patient’s permanent and ordinary place of residence.
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spelling pubmed-88953222022-03-05 A Geodemographic View of the Accessibility of Selected Outpatient Services in Czechia Maláková, Kateřina Int J Public Health Public Health Archive Objectives: Although people use health services throughout their lives, there are important differences in timing, location, and frequency of utilization. The aim of this article is to identify and explain these differences in terms of healthcare accessibility. Methods: Outpatient health services—diabetology, cardiology, and psychiatry—are analysed using anonymized data from the General Health Insurance Company (GHIC) in Czechia for 2019. Healthcare utilization is studied in relation to selected geodemographic characteristics—patient’s age, sex, place of permanent residence, and location of healthcare provision. Results: The analysis found significant differences in the utilization of the selected health services in terms of age, sex, and size of the patient’s municipality of residence. Generally, men tended to travel outside their municipality for healthcare more than women. Young patients were more likely (and also further) to travel outside their municipality for healthcare than older patients. Conclusion: The reasons for this were the location of the health service provider (mostly concentrated in local/regional centres), the patient’s ability and willingness to travel for healthcare, and differences in the patient’s permanent and ordinary place of residence. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8895322/ /pubmed/35250428 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604067 Text en Copyright © 2022 Maláková. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health Archive
Maláková, Kateřina
A Geodemographic View of the Accessibility of Selected Outpatient Services in Czechia
title A Geodemographic View of the Accessibility of Selected Outpatient Services in Czechia
title_full A Geodemographic View of the Accessibility of Selected Outpatient Services in Czechia
title_fullStr A Geodemographic View of the Accessibility of Selected Outpatient Services in Czechia
title_full_unstemmed A Geodemographic View of the Accessibility of Selected Outpatient Services in Czechia
title_short A Geodemographic View of the Accessibility of Selected Outpatient Services in Czechia
title_sort geodemographic view of the accessibility of selected outpatient services in czechia
topic Public Health Archive
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8895322/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35250428
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1604067
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